The Confession
by aikolovechild
Summary: The story starts with an eleven year old Orihime writing a letter and continues with her saying goodbye to a certain someone... A story about held in emotions bursting out and fears shared and the most precious one: The truth.


An Ichigo-Orihime Fan fiction****

The confession

She looked down at the paper, pencil in hand and smiled innocently, like little eleven year old girls do.  
The heart is perfect; she thought smugly and put the pencil back into her back pack.  
She folded the paper and put it in an envelope that matched the writing paper.  
She sighed as though a heavy weight was taken from her shoulders and pushed back her chair to stand up.  
After she prepared her outfit for that day, she stretched and yawned, put the envelope on top of her homework, so the chance she'd forget it wouldn't exist.  
But then she hit her forehead with her hand and laughed. "Oh. How stupid! Tomorrow's school; I need to put on my school uniform anyway."  
She shook her head and neatly put back her clothes and put out her school uniform.  
She sighed again and fell onto her bed, rolled onto the side and put a hand under her head.  
She closed her eyes and smiled an absent smile.

School

She skipped along the sidewalk, swinging her schoolbag and letting her open reddish brown hair sway in the wind.  
Her pace slowed as she could see the school gate, which made her heart beat as fast as a birds. She saw a tawny girl with spiky black hair and wearing tomboy style, wait for her at the gate.  
"Tatsuki!", she screamed with a loud and clear voice. The black haired girl turned to look at her. "Orihime", she said and patted Orihime's shoulder.  
"So how do you feel today, Orihime? Are you ready to tell him ?"  
Those words whipped the smile off of Orihime's face and a worried expression overtook her face.  
"I'm not sure Tatsuki..." But Tatsuki didn't stop to let Orihime wallow in her worries. She looked around searching for something.  
Her face showed an evil grin, when she found what she was looking for.  
"Oi! Ichigo! Over here!" She waved at the so called Ichigo.  
Orihime didn't need to turn around to see the boys face and the way he walks over to them. She already knew, no, saw it, she memorized each and every  
expression on his face.  
At that moment, he reached the two girls and greeted them. "Hey, Tatsuki. Hi there Inoue. What's up?"  
Orihime turned to smile at him. Right then her heart skipped a beat: His smile reached his dark brown eyes and his orange hair was spicky as ever and he had put his hands in the pockets of his pants.  
Orihime was a silent and discreet watcher, so she wasn't detected by Ichigo while she was ogling him.  
Tatsuki thought he was too dense to be true. She shook her head and said: "Not much Ichi. Sorry, but I gotta run. I'll see you in class Orihime."  
Tatsuki!, Orihime screamed in her mind all panicky as she watched her friends back, don't leave me here! I don't know what to- "So, you wanna go to class?", Ichigo asked scratching his head and grinning with his boyish features.  
He was eleven, just like everybody else.  
They walked silently side by side for a while and then Orihime started blabbering unnecessary things. She just couldn't help it, she was s nervous she was unable to control her mouth at all.  
But strangely enough he listened, gave his own comments, laughed at her unreasonable thoughts or just smiled at her crazy stories.  
She blushed each time when his eyes met with her gaze but once she couldn't look away, no matter how hard she tried.  
They reached Orihimes class room.  
She turned to say goodbye but he was faster, grinned and ruffled through her long hair. "See ya 'round, Inoue." Then he walked off.  
She was all flustered and looked at his back with big eyes.  
As she walked into class tears swelled up in her eyes.  
She tried to suppress the urge to start crying and sat down in her seat next to Tsatsuki without a word.  
The spiky haired girl opened her mouth to ask Inoue how it went.  
But the fair eyed girl just shook her head and bit her lip.  
They never mentioned it again...

Goodbye halcyon days (5 years later)

...until Orihime once again cleaned her room and found a closed envelope with Ichigo's name on it. She frowned because the writing paper felt so familiar.  
And then recognition struck her with force.  
She remembered that day like it was burned into her skin.  
She closed her eyes and pressed the letter against her volotious chest.  
Today was the last chance, but she already said goodbye to ichigo.  
She stood up and slid the envelope into the bags in her skirt.

In Hueco Mundo (After the fight with Ulqiorra)

Ichigo reached out his hand for Orihime and the look in his eyes made her insides burn up.  
She didn't hesitate; her body didn't even let her think about it.  
She put her hand into his and he squeezed it gently.  
Orihime closed her eyes and stepped closer to Ichigo.  
Now she stood so close to him his breath brushed over her face.  
She opened her eyes and slowly looked up at him.  
"I-" But he silenced her midsentence.  
"I know", he said and smiled.  
She frowned. "No, you don't."  
She took out the envelope out of her long coat with her free hand.  
As she turned bright red he looked at her questioningly.  
"Th-this is", she stuttered and then broke off to start again.  
"I found this when I left...I...I wrote this when I was eleven..."  
"I...don't understand", he said frowning with confusion.  
"Well...I wrote it f-for you."  
She pressed the envelope against his chest.  
He just looked down on her hands and then looked at her bright red face.  
She looked away and slowly let go of the envelope but before it dropped to the ground, Ichigo catched it elegantly and turned it around to see his name written there in a childish manor.

He started to laugh, the letter in hand.  
"Ha. So cute. So you really want to give it to me, this", he held up the letter, "after all these years? Are you sure?"  
She turned around, red again. "Sheesh! Just read it already, before I change my mind."  
He grinned at her and opened it.  
And then he read it out loud, so that Orihime hid her face behind her hair.  
"Dear Ichigo, I don't know if you remember me, but my name is Inoue Orihime. " He stopped to laugh at the first sentence already. "God, you're a gutsy girl, to be writing a letter to a boy, who you think, doesn't know your name. Okay let's move on. I know for one year now and I've liked you for a long time now. I hope I am not bothering you...with my...con...fession. "When he realized where this was heading to his voice became slower and slower and he went quiet in the end. When he saw the heart he looked up at her with read cheeks.  
"You...what...I..." , he stuttered so Orihime looked up, her face pale again.  
She just smiled at him and waited for him to say something more reasonable. But he never snapped out of it.  
"You know", she put her hands on his shoulders; "it's alright. This letter only says that I love you..." But then a scene flashed through her mind and made her freeze in her movement. Ichigo saw the pained expression on her face and shook her by her shoulders because she was gripping onto his now.  
"Inoue, what's wrong? Does something hurt?"  
She shook her head and let go of him."So sorry", she huffed out of breath. He now looked at her, worried, so she explained herself:" Do you remember anything about the night before they told you I left?"  
He shook his head. The only thing he knows was that he fell off his bed because he had a nightmare.  
She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath through her nose.  
"You see...Ulqiorra gave me the chance to say goodbye to one person. But only one... He also gave me this bracelet. With that I was able to...umm...I don't know how to explain it...You know the way they come into our world through this opening?" He nodded once.  
"I did something like it..."  
"Where did you go to?" Ichigo just looked into her eyes and waited for her answer.  
"I came to you", she said and gazed back at him. She watched his eyes widen in surprise and he stepped closer.  
"Why to me." But he answered that one to himself. He knew why.  
"So I did something stupid...well I couldn't in the end." She blushed as she remembered her near kissing him when he was asleep.  
"Wait", Ichigo gasped and let his hands fall off of her shoulders. "I...I remember something."  
Orihime turned paler than normal and her hands went cold. "What?" , she whispered.  
His expression didn't change but there was this sparkle in his eyes Orihime couldn't quite name it.  
"I remember a scent", he looked up with that nameless sparkle in his eyes, "the scent of your hair", Orihime blushed, "and your voice saying something about five lives..."  
She looked away. "I wanted...I just wanted to say goodbye to you and...I wanted to be able to let you go...so I would be able to...make a sacrifice I wasn't really able to make...Because I...I wanted to end your suffering, the suffering of everyone. It hurt me so much to watch you all go into battle each and every one and only to be able to watch, watching was the worst part. I couldn't help ypu. I was only a burden. It killed me to be so helpless. I started to hate myself more and more because of it. I had to change it. And with that I had to make a sacrifice. I had to let everyone think, no, believe that I betrayed you all. I didn't calculate all of it. So ... I...why the hell did you come?!" , she suddenly screamed in desperation, "WHY?! You all got hurt time and again all the others are all still fighting! And it's all my fault all over again...I can't let that happen!"  
Ichigo was shocked at first but he began to understand her feelings, her desperation. But now she turned her back to him and wanted to run away. He wouldn't let that happen; He grabbed her arm and swirled her around to face him.  
"Let-" But he kissed her out of nowhere and that made her shut up.  
His lips on hers felt so unfamiliar and... right. It felt right.  
He didn't know how he was able to bring up the courage to kiss her. He had actually planed to hug her bit he just bent down to kiss her.  
Her lips tasted sweet and he felt a sensation growing inside of him. Something heavy as a stone and also as light as a bubble. What was it?  
His hands moved up her back to stroke her hear. Her fingers were intertwined with his spiky hair and her body pressed against his in an insanely stimulating way.  
She felt his hands moving from her hair to her face, to hold it.  
Her skin burned where it was touched by his big, capable hands. She felt his mouth moving slower and more gently on hers. But she didn't want to let go. She let herself fall deeper into this feeling. She didn't' hold it back anymore. She knew that nobody ever saw the other side to her innocent and friendly way. Nobody noticed the desire for closeness in her that ate her up slowly from the inside out.

She pulled herself closer to him, as close as possible.

One hand still gripped his hair but the other one was on his broad warm shoulder.

As he felt her tongue slip through his lips he shuddered and opened his eyes. He could feel her desire, her loneliness, her need for support.

Although she said she wanted to be of help she was holding onto him. But then he felt her hands stroking down his arms and wrapping them around her waist. "I want you to be able to lean on me, too" , she whispered under his lips and kissed him slowly and kind of anxiously, as if she was scared that he would run away if she'd stop.

He fastened his grip on her and followed the line of her lips with his tongue. He felt her heavy breathing and her embrace.

They kissed slower but the more they slowed the more passionate and intense it became.


End file.
